Welcome to the Binge Report, where we look at the most popular movies and original TV shows that Americans have been streaming in the last week. For those interested in Australian numbers (provided to us by streaming search engine JustWatch), please have a look here. You can read last week's report here.
The TV Time app (iPhone and Android) helps users organise their streaming plans. The data here is tracked from American users of the app and some shows listed are not available in Australia without the use of a suitable VPN.
"Elvis" debuts on HBO Max and it instantly shot to the top of the streaming movies chart for the weekend of September 2 - September 4 2022.
It was joined by three other new entries in the top 10, including Netflix's Love in the Villa in third, "Jurassic World Dominion" (Peacock) in 4th, and "Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul" (Peacock) in 9th.
With four in, four had to go out, and they were "Prey", "Orphan: First Kill", "The Black Phone", and after a great run in the top 10, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness".
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Of course the big streaming news of the week was the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video. The series has been made controversial by the backlash received, which was either led by an anti-woke reaction to the diverse casting of the show, or due to the show's lack of respect for the source material, or just general dissatisfaction with the quality of the show, especially given its hyper budget.
You will note that the Game of Thrones prequel series "House of the Dragon" does not rank in the top 10, and that's because it wasn't a streaming original/exclusive. An addendum provided by TV Time explains that had non streaming exclusive "linear" programming been included, "Dragon" would have been the most popular show of the week, ahead of everything else including "Rings".
Even without such illustrious competition, "The Rings of Power" failed to take the top spot, instead losing to a middle-of-the-season episode of "She-Hulk" (another show with a noticeable anti-woke backlash). This is partially explained by the fact that viewership figures for "She-Hulk" was calculated based on viewership for the entire week covered by the top 10 (August 29 to September 4), whereas "The Rings of Power" only includes the second half of the same week. Still, given that series premieres usually perform best in the first couple of days, this result is a disappointing one for Amazon.
The other new entry in the top 10 was "The Patient" on Hulu.
"Echoes" and "A League of Their Own" left the top 10 to make room for the two new entries.
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